Here is a printable Google Doc with this information: https://tinyurl.com/ycep9emy
Background: Instructional Posts
These are embedded, in order, after the list.
- The Reading Process | Covers everything.
- As You Read: Works of Literary Merit | One version of the analysis process. An updated version is here: https://tinyurl.com/simplifiedanalysis.
- Choosing to Read: Directions | Covers assigned texts versus student-chosen texts.
- Literary Analysis Guide | Another version of the analysis process.
Background: Course Syllabi
Each syllabus covers reading goals for the course in full. A note on AP English Language & Composition follows that embedded syllabus.
- English 10 Syllabus: 2018-2019
- English 11 Syllabus: 2018-2019
- AP English Language & Composition Syllabus: 2018-2019
AP Language follows the reading requirements from the College Board, which are available here: tinyurl.com/210APCB. The most relevant section is this one:
Language & Composition is explicitly focused on a different kind of reading. Canonical literature isn’t excluded, but traditional analysis is discouraged. Nevertheless, the makerspace so strongly emphasizes literature as an aesthetic experience that exceptions must be made. See the course orientation and Ken Robinson’s “Changing Education Paradigms” video for more on this.
Makerspace Reading Lists: 2018-2019
The makerspace shifts us away from mandated reading and toward literary merit and student choice. One of the essential texts in the prefatory reading is John Holt’s “How Teachers Make Children Hate Reading,” which we use to frame that choice:
I don’t want you to feel that just because you start a book, you have to finish it. Give an author thirty or forty pages or so to get his story going. Then if you don’t like the characters and don’t care what happens to them, close the book, put it away, and get another. I don’t care whether the books are easy or hard, short or long, as long as you enjoy them.
As the “Choosing to Read” instructional post says, students navigate the first 30-40 pages of a novel in order to make that decision. Each time, we use a specific protocol to learn more about how students read, what that means for their learning, and where the threshold lies between challenging their habits and forcing the issue until something breaks.
Ultimately, students decide between the assigned book (e.g., 1984, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest) and another work of equal literary merit. They must read a book. They are encouraged to stick with the assigned one; the choice, however, is theirs.
We then focus on skills, traits, and the common experiences that all works of literary merit provide us. There are no quizzes and no tests. Literature is used in essays when it is appropriate in a real-world sense, or when we must do test prep.
Otherwise, literature is used to teach the reader. Reading gives us life experience, wisdom, and empathy. It also teaches students something about how they read, which is essential to how they learn.
The assured experience is in the skills and traits developed by reading, the discussions that don’t depend just on plot points, and the metacognitive and reflective work that drives growth.
Reading Calendar: First Semester (2018-2019)
My co-teachers and I built the course calendar in September: tinyurl.com/210-2018-cal. For all classes, the Pareto Projects and GAP scoring dates stay the same. Each quarter is divided into panels, like a triptych, with different kinds of literature assigned during each panel.
Here is a post explaining the use of Q1 as a skill-building crash course:
Through the first semester, a variety of literature and other texts were studied:
- A Long Way Gone in English 10 | Sample Instructional Post
- Short fiction in English 11 | Sample Instructional Post
- Non-fiction essays in AP Language | Sample Instructional Post
- Short fiction in English 10 | Sample Instructional Post
- Freakonomics in English 11 | Sample Instructional Post
- 1984 in AP Language | Sample Instructional Post
Q2 ends with every course having studied a book according to the makerspace protocol, which includes, of course, doing close-reading exercises on prescribed excerpts, discussing thematic elements, and practicing literary analysis.
There are additionally several posts that combat misinformation and disinformation about the makerspace approach to literature. Here is one:
Here is another that focuses specifically on reading:
Reading Calendar: Second Semester (2018-2019)
Up next will be three full-length books or plays in each course, in addition to short fiction, non-fiction, and poetry.
Below (or in the printable version of this post), you can see the major texts cross two GAP panels each, with around 30 class periods available to us during those two panels. This is more than enough time to introduce the literature, begin the reading process, and then make the student-driven choice to continue or to choose a work of equal literary merit.
Each class will keep test prep and the required essays in place, of course, as well as the Pareto Projects and other project-based learning opportunities (like the ongoing NPR Student Podcast Challenge).
Note that the listed texts are provisional. It might be that we decide that Othello is a better play for English 10, for instance, since it is taught in other English 10 classes. We might move up our study of The Catcher in the Rye in English 11 to partner up with other junior classes, too. We are using some of the most commonly taught books in the English Department in order to create assured experiences.
Note on the overlap between English 11 and AP English Language & Composition:
English 11 and AP English Language & Composition are taught some of the same canonical texts. They are also given some of the same essay prompts, including junior-year staples like the personal narrative. This is because AP English Language & Composition, while open to juniors and seniors, is practically and provisionally a junior-level course.
In 2008-2009, it was officially called English 11 AP. In 2009-2010, the course lost its lab periods, dropped the 11, and opened up enrollment to seniors. Since then, 553 students have taken the course. Exactly 20 (or 3%) have been seniors. Over the last four years, sections of AP English Language & Composition have had an average of 29 students. The only three seniors enrolled during that time are all from 2018-2019. The average number of seniors in any section in the last ten years is 0.8 — less than a single student. Juniors take AP English Literature and Composition; seniors do not take AP English Language and Composition.
